Andalusia has already opened the «incentives for SMEs for industrial development and job creation in Andalusia» grants; taking advantage of the fact that the first ones have been released, we wanted to review the regional innovation grants expected to come out this year.
Inveready has started the year with a strong commitment to biotechnology. A few weeks ago we announced that it had invested in Oncostellae, and recently we have learned that it has invested in two more companies, in Ab-BIOTICS through its debt fund and in Cuantum through its Inveready Biotech II fund.
The AEESD is a programme within the Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation 2013-2016, to finance industrial research or experimental development projects in the field of ICTs. Last year's novelty was the increase of the % grant, which can reach 50% for SMEs depending on the qualification. Below are some of the projects from last year's call that received the highest scores.
Celtic Plus is an industry-led Eureka cluster promoting European R&D projects in the areas of telecommunications, media, Future Internet and ICT applications and services. This year's winter call will be open from 26 February to 25 May. The conditions for this call are expected to be improved, companies will be able to get up to 50% of grant funding, without the need for a loan part.
In July 2015, the Oesía Network group restructured its shareholding, giving more prominence to its managers, who have been left with 44% and have carried out a new business plan in which more weight has been given to the engineering and security division.
Manunet is one of the European Commission's network of 15 partners and 8 associates from different countries and regions to promote transnational R&D projects in the field of advanced manufacturing. The call for proposals opened this month of...
In the last few months, three financing rounds totalling almost €70M have taken place in Spain, those of Sanifit, Minoryx and Aelix Therapeutics, and one IPO, that of Oryzon. These figures confirm the boom in the sector, not only for domestic investors but also for foreign investors. This January we have already seen investments such as Inveready's investment in Oncostellae and that of Aelix Therapeutics.
The aid, to which the State Secretariat for R&D&I has earmarked €18M, is aimed at hiring PhDs in companies and stimulating demand in the private sector for qualified personnel to carry out R&D projects, as well as helping to consolidate newly-created technology companies.
At the end of 2015, 9 companies in the expansion phase have debuted this year on the MAB, with a revenue of close to €100M. This represents an increase in the number of MAB companies of 30% compared to the end of 2014 and shows signs of optimism for 2016, in which companies such as BestPrice have already shown their interest in listing on the MAB.
The aim of Retos-Colaboración is to promote experimental development projects in collaboration between companies and research organisations. Last year, this aid has been novel in that SMEs in the autonomous communities of Andalusia, the Canary Islands, Castile-La Mancha, Ceuta, Extremadura, Galicia, Melilla, Asturias and Murcia received grants to finance their actions in 2016.
Investors, both venture capitalists and corporations, see the industrial innovation being developed in the Basque Country as a source of opportunities. This week we have learned that a German group has bought the 50% of the Basque company Ikor with the aim of incorporating its innovation into its products. Portebello Capital has also bought a stake in Laulagun Bearings.
2015 has been a very active year in terms of acquisitions in the ICT sector. There have been operations of very high amounts such as the purchase of EMC by Dell for €67,000M. Spain has also been the protagonist of several acquisitions in the sector, one of the last purchases in the year was the purchase of Cast Info by the French company Aubay.